Republicans' Long, Hot, Racist Summer By Kirsten Powers

Good read about the climate of hate that is the rage of the Republican party leading up to the November 2010 election.

Since Obama became president, the fact that he is black really ticked off many white southern men. But since spewing racial epitaphs at black people is somewhat politically incorrect, the right wing Republican nutjobs have latched onto this "Obama is a Muslim" meme with such vehemence that it is as if they have replaced the N-word with Muslim.

It's ok to be a religious bigot in today's America, just not a racial bigot, because obviously, we have a black man in the White House. The demonizing of Islam has increased since Obama took office. People who want to use slur words in the same sentence with Obama feel quite comfortable calling him a Muslim, and not in a nice way, and many even go further to claim that Obama was born in Kenya, not in Hawai'i (although I am sure that a number the concur he was born in Hawai'i still think he was not born in the United States because they think Hawai'i is a "foreign" place!).

What the hell is wrong with these people, and why do they get so much air time? Why do we always cater to the bigots? What has bigotry ever provided that advanced mankind?

A Re-Thinking Of One's Stupidity?

Given all the outside right wing media push over the really non-issue of "hallowed ground" and the Islamic community center's proposed building, this little tidbit from today's pro and con rally caught my attention:

Michael Rose, 27, a bespectacled medical student from Brooklyn, approached the opponents of the mosque around noontime with a handwritten sign, reading “religious tolerance is what makes America great.” He was immediately surrounded by protestors, some of whom angrily pointed a finger in his face. One man, his face red, leaned in to Mr. Rose and hissed, “If the cops weren’t here, you’d be bleeding right now.”

Mr. Rose was escorted by the police back to the "area" where the "for the building" group were allowed, and as the reporter was talking to him, this happened:

Just then, the red-faced man who had threatened Mr. Rose re-appeared. He had followed the medical student a block from the protest. He stuck out a hand and, in a terse voice, said: “I’m sorry.”

“You have a right,” the man continued. (He would not give his name.) “I am sorry for what I said to you. I disagree with you completely, but you have a right.”

Is there a scintilla of hope in that gesture that maybe, just maybe, the stupid people can be woken up from their stupor?

Good Grief Charlie Brown! Now Harry Reid Joins The Insanity

More stupidity in Washington over the planned Muslim community center in NYC. This time, it is Democrat Harry Reid, of all people!

I totally, totally, totally do not understand these people. The foaming at the mouth, over the top level of hate, astounds me. The demonizing a religion that is fast overtaking the world is sheer stupidity, coupled with an enormous amount of ignorance. From claims that Islam is not a religion, to claims that Islam is the voice of the devil or demonology, just blows my mind.

America is NEVER, ever, going to go backwards, people. This land that was invaded to begin with back before it became the country we know as the United States of America, already was populated with indigenous people of dark skin, from the south and from the north. And yet, despite the fact that white people were not the natural population of this continent, white Americans believe that somehow, the good ole USA is supposed to be for white people only. The meme is to get back to our roots, which really is inane when one actually ponders that thought, because the roots of white people were never in this country to begin with!

The religious superiority claims of the white Christians who somehow have been brain drained and fed some sort of crap that God wants America to be white and Christian totally belies the fact that this country was founded (however illegal it may have been) on immigration -- of people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. As each successive wave of immigrants arrived, however, older Americans (whom I can pretty much say with some sense of truthfulness probably cannot trace their origins to a purely white background, given the merging of cultures throughout the world -- many white people who have their DNA tested for their origin of race find out that they have percentages of Native American, sub-Saharan and eastern European in their DNA!) I would bet that one would be hard pressed to find a "pure" white American these days.

I am totally opposed to those that are stirring up untruths about Islam and Muslims, and who are projecting their rancid ideology onto the general public under the guise of concern for the sanctity of ground zero. The idiocy of such concern is borne out by the very REAL fact that there is currently a mosque in the Pentagon! The fucking Pentagon, which was also attacked on 9/11! Where are the crowds calling for it to be closed because of the "hallowed ground" theory? Um, not gonna happen. So, next time you hear someone voicing a very stupid opinion about the Cordoba House, why not ask them about the mosque in the Pentagon. Come to think of it, why not ask Harry Reid why it's ok to have a mosque in the Pentagon, which was also attacked, and where people lost their lives, but it's not ok to have a community center, albeit, a Muslim center, a few blocks from ground zero?

Another reminder of the fact that the Democratic party is spineless, inept, seriously afraid of its own shadow, and clearly not representative of the progressive and liberals that it is supposed to represent.

Harry Reid -- you are one stupid individual. You need a good slap upside your head.

Hipocrasy, Thy Name Is ADL

The overreaction by the right wingers concerning the planned Muslim community center in Manhattan has been comical, at best. But, as many bloggers have pointed out in recent days, the Jewish organization ADL's coming out in support of the right wingers in wanting to prevent the Muslim community center from being built has proven how hypocritical said organization is.

The group behind the recently opened "Museum of Tolerance" museum in Manhattan has come out against a planned Islamic community center, which includes a mosque, near Ground Zero.

"Religious freedom does not mean being insensitive...or an idiot," Rabbi Meyer May, the Wiesenthal Center's executive director, told Crain's New York.

"Religion is supposed to be beautiful," he said. "Why create pain in the name of religion?"

It's a topic he knows something about. The Wiesenthal Center caused an uproar in for building one of its Museums of Tolerance on top of an old Muslim burial ground in Jerusalem.

The building of that museum has "resulted in digging up the remains of people who had been buried in a Muslim cemetery for generations," according to City University professor Marnia Lazreg. Indeed, in 2006, workers dug up bones, and an Arab group sued to stop the project from going forward.

The Wiesenthal Center has pushed forward, however, and in 2008 the Israeli Supreme Court declared that the center was allowed to build its museum on the land.

So, basically, IOKIYAJ, but INOKIYAM.

Talk about being disrespectful.

Talk about bullshit.

UPDATE: What about the mosque inside the Pentagon, where regular prayer meetings and such continue well after 9/11! H/T to DailKos.